General digital shots- Work in progress

[Lumen Miner]

Just some shots I have been experimenting with, trying to get more out of my meager equipment.

Still haven't got the hang of stacking as I don't have a tracking mount.

These shots are just taken on "Night scene mode", 8 sec exposure (which is the max for my digi ).

Can't wait for the next few days for my 35mm DSLR camera, to come back from repair. It doesn't have a display and uses film. I think I prefer the not knowning how the shot will turn out, till it gets printed.


I'm also hoping to do some drawing of the moon tonight, i'll have those up soon, if they turn out alright. I'm not much of an artist. :(


I know these shots are not all that good, yet I wish to use this thread and edit it as a diary of my progress. Thanks.

The third shot of the moon, was taken free hand using a magnifing glass.


Oh I need a better camera, with a lense mount.

[Lumen Miner]

Managed to take several satisfactory shots through my 70mm lense.

[Lumen Miner]

Using my cybershot. Not so great, still not too bad.

[iceman]

Nice work Mitchell - some of the ones in that second lot are coming out very nice indeed.

They'll look even better when you take them at night time with a dark background :) more contrast!

Keep it up.

[Lumen Miner]

Thanks a whole bunch!!:)

I am surprised I managed to get those shots. The digital camera I was using, for some reason doesn't like being mounted viewing straight into the lense. I've switched back to my cybershot for now.
Still need a mount as due to a neck injury, my hands shake a fair bit now uncontrollably.


Your right the contrast is soooo much better at night, but I'm still fiddling with ISO and frame rates, so the daytime was an idea time for experimenting etc.

I love how you can still get a fair amount of detail on the surface.



Thanks for your advice... If anyone has anymore I would love to hear it.. i'm still just struggling in the dark at the moment.... I have found though, the more shots I flick off at a multitude of different setting etc, improves my hit rate. Go figure hey... Take 200 photos, keep 5. I guess that's the game hey!!?


Here two night shots.... Can't wait to get out tonight.

[Lumen Miner]

Lunar shots, getting funky blue shots for some reason on the cybershot.
Switched photo's to BW and tweaked the contrast/brightness a tad in registax. Still haven't figured how to align in it, properly though..

Is there a limit to the amount of photos uploaded here? Please tell me if i'm going over board.... It's just I have hundreds of images on my computer, it's nice to have a location to post my best.

[Lumen Miner]

Any one have some ideas on constucting a camera mount for a lense, but the camera does not have a lense mount feature? Or is a tripod my best bet? I would like to improve the quality of my high resolution shots.

[iceman]

What telescope are you using?

Have you read this?

Astrophotography with a dob (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-201-0-0-1-0.html)

It has some suggestions and hints for lunar astrophotography with budget gear.

[Lumen Miner]

75mm Celestron refractor.

I hope to start work on constructing my own dob soon.

[alphajuno]

Mitchell,
Have you looked into afocal astrophotography yet? That's a very easy way to start. Although you won't get the spectacular results you see in some posts, you can still get things that are very satisfying.

http://www.astronomyforbeginners.com/astrophotography/afocal.php


The key that I found was to use an eyepiece with the longest eye relief you have (17mm mininum). Otherwise, your camera may not be able to focus. I bought an adapter to hold my camera but if you're handy, you can build something or place your tripod so it's in the focal plane of your eyepiece. There's a pretty small margin for error so I thought the adapter I bought was worth it to me (and I don't build things - grin). I was able to image the moon, mars, saturn, and jupiter like this.

[Lumen Miner]

"afocal" I think that is what i'm doing. :rofl: but my camera is unable to take a lense mount. I have constructed my own, but it is not optimal.


Not sure if you saw and I need to add it here... But this was taken afocally. It just takes me some time to line up shots like this one I took.